(or actually its "about" to be implemented): [image: Screenshot 2026-09-21 at 22.25.12.png]
I honestly thought it's already there :) On Mon, Sep 21, 2026 at 10:22 PM Jarek Potiuk <[email protected]> wrote: > And yes to answer your question - the policy (as of last week) also > applies to Drafts. > > Initially, when GitHub introduced it, the policy wasn't like that, but > people used it to game the system, so they changed it last week > after listening to feedback. > > For many months I have followed discussions about the changes GitHub > introduced in the "GitHub maintainers network" group (which is a > semi-private group of maintainers that GitHub works with and tells them > ideas they are working on), as well as feedback from many maintainers. > > To be honest, I haven't been pushing the "pull request" limits too much - > before they changed the "Draft" policy on it, because I was afraid that it > can be gamed - so I intensified my efforts (and added the workflow to test > to respond to INFRA needs - right after GitHub announced it. > > > > > On Mon, Sep 21, 2026 at 10:19 PM Sameer Mesiah <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Okay. Looking at the statistics again, I think 7 is not too bad. So I am >> not as against this policy as before. As a contributor, the more intense >> periods have a greater weight in your memory than the more quiet >> stretches. >> >> Could you confirm if this will affect draft PRs? And of course, a closed >> PR >> can be reopened once a new 'slot' is free? >> >> On Mon, 21 Sept 2026 at 21:13, Jarek Potiuk <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> > My take: 7 is about right :) >> > >> > On Mon, Sep 21, 2026 at 10:10 PM Jarek Potiuk <[email protected]> wrote: >> > >> > > Happy to provide more datapoints. It's sooooooo easy with AI nowadays >> - >> > > here are your weekly stats for last year. >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > >> ┌────────────────────┬──────┬───────────────────────┬────────────────────┬──────┬──────────────────┐ >> > > │ Week │ Open │ │ Week >> > │ >> > > Open │ │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2025-09-29 → 11-24 │ 0 │ (no PRs yet) │ 2026-03-23 >> > │ >> > > 10 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +4 −0 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2025-12-01 │ 1 │ ▇ +1 │ 2026-03-30 >> > │ >> > > 10 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +2 −2 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2025-12-08 │ 1 │ ▇ +1 −1 │ 2026-04-06 >> > │ >> > > 10 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +2 −2 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2025-12-15 │ 0 │ −1 │ 2026-04-13 >> > │ >> > > 9 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ −1 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2025-12-22 │ 1 │ ▇ +2 −1 │ 2026-04-20 >> > │ >> > > 8 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ −1 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2025-12-29 │ 2 │ ▇▇ +1 │ 2026-04-27 >> > │ >> > > 7 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ −1 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2026-01-05 │ 3 │ ▇▇▇ +1 │ 2026-05-04 >> > │ >> > > 6 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇ +2 −3 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2026-01-12 │ 2 │ ▇▇ −1 │ 2026-05-11 >> > │ >> > > 7 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +4 −3 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2026-01-19 │ 4 │ ▇▇▇▇ +2 │ 2026-05-18 >> > │ >> > > 8 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +3 −2 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2026-01-26 │ 4 │ ▇▇▇▇ +3 −3 │ 2026-05-25 >> > │ >> > > 7 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +2 −3 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2026-02-02 │ 7 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +4 −1 │ 2026-06-01 >> > │ >> > > 6 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇ +2 −3 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2026-02-09 │ 8 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +3 −2 │ 2026-06-08 >> > │ >> > > 4 │ ▇▇▇▇ +1 −3 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2026-02-16 │ 8 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +5 −5 │ 2026-06-15 >> > │ >> > > 7 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +5 −2 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2026-02-23 │ 10 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +2 │ 2026-06-22 >> > │ >> > > 9 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +3 −1 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2026-03-02 │ 15 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +7 −2 │ 2026-06-29 >> > │ >> > > 10 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +4 −3 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2026-03-09 │ 13 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +3 −5 │ 2026-07-06 >> > │ >> > > 6 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇ +1 −5 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ 2026-03-16 │ 6 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇ +4 −11 │ 2026-07-13 → >> 07-20 >> > │ >> > > 6 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇ │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ │ │ │ 2026-07-27 >> > │ >> > > 3 │ ▇▇▇ +1 −4 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ │ │ │ 2026-08-03 → >> 08-10 >> > │ >> > > 5 │ ▇▇▇▇▇ │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ │ │ │ 2026-08-17 >> > │ >> > > 4 │ ▇▇▇▇ −2 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ │ │ │ 2026-08-24 >> > │ >> > > 6 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇ +2 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ │ │ │ 2026-08-31 >> > │ >> > > 7 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +2 −1 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ │ │ │ 2026-09-07 >> > │ >> > > 9 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ +3 −1 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ │ │ │ 2026-09-14 >> > │ >> > > 8 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ −1 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> ├────────────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────┼──────┼──────────────────┤ >> > > │ │ │ │ 2026-09-21 >> > │ >> > > 6 │ ▇▇▇▇▇▇ −2 │ >> > > >> > > >> > >> └────────────────────┴──────┴───────────────────────┴────────────────────┴──────┴──────────────────┘ >> > > >> > > Summary: first PR 2025-11-27, so the whole history is 43 weeks. 90 PRs >> > > authored, 81 merged, 3 closed, 6 open now. Weekly average 6.4 open, >> peak >> > 15 >> > > (week of 2026-03-02), and the queue drained hard the following >> fortnight >> > > (−11 in the week of 03-16, the largest single-week clearance). >> > > >> > > On Mon, Sep 21, 2026 at 9:42 PM Sameer Mesiah <[email protected]> >> > > wrote: >> > > >> > >> Hi Jarek, >> > >> >> > >> Thank you for pulling up the statistics. It really helps us >> understand >> > the >> > >> situation better. But I think these point-in-time numbers can >> sometimes >> > >> mask the natural deviations in activity for most contributors. Since >> you >> > >> took me as an example of someone who would hardly be affected by this >> > new >> > >> policy, I think we need to look at the maximum number of PRs I had >> open >> > >> over my history of contributing. My memory is not 100% accurate of >> > course >> > >> but I recall having 15-20 open PRs at one point. And right around the >> > time >> > >> of the summit, I am fairly sure I had 10 open PRs (some in draft >> though >> > I >> > >> am not sure if this policy applies to draft PRs) which then went down >> > to 6 >> > >> as the maintainers returned to start reviewing and merging my PRs >> > again. I >> > >> do not fault the maintainers of course as I understand the review >> queue >> > is >> > >> going to deprioritised during that period due to intense summit >> > >> preparations. >> > >> >> > >> I would say I’m opening fewer PRs nowadays (unfortunately other >> > >> commitments just get in the way even when you really want to >> contribute >> > as >> > >> a volunteer). So the 6 open PRs statistic might have caught me in a >> low >> > >> point. >> > >> >> > >> I do not wish to make this thread about myself but I suspect other >> > >> contributors’ activity might have similar patterns. Periods where >> they >> > >> have >> > >> lots of open PRs and then periods where they only have a handful. You >> > can >> > >> clearly see this in the statistics of people in bucket A who you >> seem to >> > >> categorize as ‘good’ contributors. >> > >> >> > >> If you are insistent on this policy, I think a 10 PR limit might be a >> > more >> > >> reasonable middle ground. It will prevent bots and bad faith >> > contributors >> > >> from spamming 50 PRs but it won’t be excessively restrictive. >> > >> >> > >> On Mon, 21 Sep 2026 at 20:23, Jarek Potiuk <[email protected]> wrote: >> > >> >> > >> > Correction: Thursday the 24th at 7:00pm CEST. - which is 72 hrs >> from >> > the >> > >> > beginning of that thread, >> > >> > >> > >> > And one more comment: I thought for a long time about the metrics >> > >> "Threads >> > >> > vs. PRs". For me this is **embodiment** of community-aware, >> empathic >> > >> > contributor - on the way to become a commmiter. And I **knew** - >> > >> because I >> > >> > checked it before - that practically **all** committers have a very >> > high >> > >> > number here. >> > >> > >> > >> > I deliberately never mentioned it in our discussions. As we all >> know, >> > >> > anything you set as a goal stops being a useful metric. There are >> > always >> > >> > ways to game the system. >> > >> > >> > >> > That's why I waited for quite a while to accumulate the data and >> > showed >> > >> > completely different numbers - and never discussed the thread vs. >> PRs >> > >> idea >> > >> > - to ensure this particular metric remained totally unbiased. >> > >> > And - just for the record - this is the last time this metric will >> be >> > >> > unbiased—now that we will publicly say we "care" about it. >> > >> > >> > >> > And here is Claude's analysis on those top-20. And my thinking is >> that >> > >> we >> > >> > should care about the needs of groups in this way: A > B > C. >> > >> > >> > >> > ------------ >> > >> > >> > >> > Three buckets, all 24 (top-19 + the five-way tie at 6 open PRs) >> > >> > >> > >> > Bucket rule, stated up front so the borderline calls are visible: >> > >> > engagement = others' threads per open PR (≥1.5 counts as engaged), >> > >> quality >> > >> > = all-time merge rate (≥40% healthy). I picked these thresholds to >> > match >> > >> > where the data actually clusters - there's a real gap between 1.7 >> and >> > >> 0.8 >> > >> > on engagement, and between 40% and 31% on the merge rate. >> > >> > >> > >> > --- >> > >> > >> > >> > A. Net reviewers — they give back more than they ask for (9 people, >> > 103 >> > >> > open PRs) >> > >> > >> > >> > ┌─────────────────┬──────┬─────────────────┬─────────┬─────────┐ >> > >> > │ Author │ Open │ Threads/open PR │ Reviews │ Merge % │ >> > >> > ├─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ SameerMesiah97 │ 6 │ 60.3 │ 350 │ 90% │ >> > >> > ├─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ shivaam │ 6 │ 13.0 │ 55 │ 67% │ >> > >> > ├─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ Vamsi-klu │ 10 │ 10.8 │ 58 │ 38% │ >> > >> > ├─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ Andrushika │ 9 │ 4.6 │ 33 │ 79% │ >> > >> > ├─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ yuseok89 │ 12 │ 3.8 │ 49 │ 77% │ >> > >> > ├─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ steveahnahn │ 14 │ 3.2 │ 40 │ 59% │ >> > >> > ├─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ ColtenOuO │ 23 │ 2.6 │ 70 │ 59% │ >> > >> > ├─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ stephen-bracken │ 6 │ 2.3 │ 16 │ 56% │ >> > >> > ├─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ fat-catTW │ 17 │ 1.7 │ 33 │ 50% │ >> > >> > └─────────────────┴──────┴─────────────────┴─────────┴─────────┘ >> > >> > >> > >> > Vamsi-klu is the odd one: 108 threads and 58 reviews (bucket-A >> > >> engagement) >> > >> > on a 38% merge rate. Placed here because the review effort is >> > >> unambiguous. >> > >> > fat-catTW and stephen-bracken are the borderline entries - drop the >> > >> > threshold to 2.0 and fat-catTW moves out. >> > >> > >> > >> > B. Shippers, not reviewers - volume with normal merge rates (6 >> people, >> > >> 115 >> > >> > open PRs) >> > >> > >> > >> > ┌───────────────┬──────┬─────────────────┬─────────┬─────────┐ >> > >> > │ Author │ Open │ Threads/open PR │ Reviews │ Merge % │ >> > >> > ├───────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ Eason09053360 │ 35 │ 0.3 │ 13 │ 52% │ >> > >> > ├───────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ 1fanwang │ 34 │ 0.8 │ 36 │ 40% │ >> > >> > ├───────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ rjgoyln │ 27 │ 0.7 │ 34 │ 53% │ >> > >> > ├───────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ Samin061 │ 7 │ 0.4 │ 4 │ 58% │ >> > >> > ├───────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ jeff3071 │ 6 │ 0.3 │ 7 │ 46% │ >> > >> > ├───────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ YAshhh29 │ 6 │ 0.2 │ 1 │ 45% │ >> > >> > └───────────────┴──────┴─────────────────┴─────────┴─────────┘ >> > >> > >> > >> > The work lands—merge rates here are ordinary, some above >> > >> committer-adjacent >> > >> > levels—but the top three are carrying 96 open PRs between them >> while >> > >> having >> > >> > commented on 56 of other people's threads in total. 1fanwang sits >> > >> exactly >> > >> > on the 40% line. >> > >> > >> > >> > C. Low engagement and low merge rate (9 people, 82 open PRs) >> > >> > >> > >> > ┌───────────────────┬──────┬─────────────────┬─────────┬─────────┐ >> > >> > │ Author │ Open │ Threads/open PR │ Reviews │ Merge % │ >> > >> > ├───────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ bujjibabukatta │ 16 │ 0.2 │ 5 │ 11% │ >> > >> > ├───────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ anmolxlight │ 12 │ 0.4 │ 12 │ 31% │ >> > >> > ├───────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ dheerenmohta │ 10 │ 0.2 │ 0 │ 28% │ >> > >> > ├───────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ namanjain24-sudo │ 8 │ 1.1 │ 1 │ 11% │ >> > >> > ├───────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ Kunal8954 │ 8 │ 0.8 │ 6 │ 20% │ >> > >> > ├───────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ bramhanandlingala │ 8 │ 0.0 │ 1 │ 22% │ >> > >> > ├───────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ zozo123 │ 7 │ 0.1 │ 6 │ 17% │ >> > >> > ├───────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ GayathriSrividya │ 7 │ 0.0 │ 9 │ 22% │ >> > >> > ├───────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ >> > >> > │ nagasrisai │ 6 │ 0.7 │ 6 │ 29% │ >> > >> > └───────────────────┴──────┴─────────────────┴─────────┴─────────┘ >> > >> > >> > >> > bramhanandlingala and GayathriSrividya have commented on zero >> threads >> > >> they >> > >> > didn't author. This bucket is 82 open PRs with an aggregate merge >> rate >> > >> > around 21% - roughly four reviews spent per PR that eventually >> lands. >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > J. >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > On Mon, Sep 21, 2026 at 9:09 PM Henry Chen <[email protected]> >> > >> wrote: >> > >> > >> > >> > > Thanks Jarek and Vincent for the detailed data and perspective >> that >> > >> > > context is really helpful. Seeing the actual numbers (especially >> > that >> > >> > even >> > >> > > the top contributors rarely hit 5 open PRs), a cap of 5 makes >> sense >> > >> to me >> > >> > > as a starting point. Happy to go with it and adjust later if we >> find >> > >> it's >> > >> > > too tight in practice. >> > >> > > >> > >> > > Thanks >> > >> > > Henry >> > >> > > >> > >> > > >> > --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > >> > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] >> > >> > > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] >> > >> > > >> > >> > > >> > >> > >> > >> >> > > >> > >> >
